Melita offer free downloads for a month as compensation for internet outage

Update: Melita Cable internet subscribers across Gozo and Malta, including Gozo News, have been suffering loss of international connectivity and email since 9.00am this morning. Melita said this was due to a technical fault affecting the company’s international connectivity.

Customers have had no access to international sites with some local sites available at a limited speed, the fault also severely disrupted, email, international phone and data services.

The service was finally restored at 3.00pm, at least in the case of our own connection at Gozo News and we of course apologise to our readers for this unavoidable disruption to our news.

Melita said this afternoon that it had been working closely with WIND in Italy to resolve a software bug that led to the limitations to its internet and phone services.

A spokesperson for Melita said, "We apologise for any inconvenience caused and assure our customers that our technical team did their utmost to resolve the problem as quickly as possible."

"Unfortunately Melita’s proposals for redundancy agreements presented to both GO and Vodafone earlier this year were delayed by both operators. Melita thanks the Malta Communications Authority for its support in concluding these agreements as soon as possible."

"On behalf of Melita, I would like to apologise to our customers for today’s service limitations. Our technical teams identified and resolved the problem as fast as they could, however, the problem was not entirely within our control and therefore we required support from our international connectivity providers WIND, in Italy," said Mr. Stephen Wright, Melita’s Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Wright expressed his gratitude to all Melita’s Technical Department for their hard work, under huge pressure, to restore services in the shortest possible time. As compensation to our customers we are offering unlimited internet downloads free of charge for one whole month," added Mr. Wright. This is the first time that a local communications provider is offering compensation for a technical outage. "We also assure our customers that we are working closely with the MCA to ensure this situation will be avoided in the future. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in resolving today’s issues in the least time possible."